Kiryu is at his angriest in 5, thus making him even stronger.

Yakuza kiwami is pretty balanced up until you unlock tiger drop which absolutely destroys everything that is able to breath. Add that insane move with time for destruction and calming towel and you get to experience 3 second bosses

Hard agree, the amount of versatility John Yakuza has in 5 made the combat extremely fun for me and increased my level of enjoyment of the game

Not many people played it so it's understandable, but I think Kiryu in the original Yakuza 2 is his most broken iteration. He has Iron Body Essence like Saejima in Y5 so he can't be staggered while in heat mode, he also has Blue Dragon Spirit from Y3 meaning he can't die as long as he is in heat mode, but probably the most broken thing is The Ultimate Fighter skill that you got by completing the heat action list. In most games you needed the War God Talisman or another piece of gear for unlimited heat but in Y2 it's actually a skill, so technically it's part of his moveset, making it the only game where you can do heat actions without heat gauge and without requiring a piece of equipment. There was nothing stopping you from just standing still and Komaki Reversal'ing everything that came your way, and there was no way to turn it off, once you unlocked it, it was there forever.

One thing you forgot to mention about Zero's combat is that how much heat you have also increases the attack speed of Kiryu which I think is what makes it pretty broken as well

Kazuma isnt in 5. Thats suzuki, silly

bro really becoming the best Yakuza content creator

While I love Kiryu in 5, I think 4 has my favorite move set, it’s the perfect culmination of his skills from 1-3 funneled down into it’s fullest and most metal form.

I still miss one move in particular from Y5, and it’s what I call the “Essence of Street Cheese”. The one where Kiryu grates the enemy’s face on the ground.

I mean.... he casually dodged rpg missiles in 5. I think it's safe to say Yakuza 5 Kiryu is peak Kiryu.

Honestly Kiryu deserves to be as busted as he is in 5, I consider it good gameplay/story integration lmao

Dragon Spirit is basically Kiryu using Kaioken and I love it.

There's a Kiryu kind of broken where he smashes your face in, paralyzing you... and then there's the Yagami kind of broken where you get juggled into the moon on a 100 hit combo...

Should’ve talked about the group heat move that allows him to skip random encounters

Yakuza 0 has a similar bounding strategy for beast.

I think the newest addition, Gaiden, has THE most broken kiryu. He can one tap almost any goon with just his rocket boots, it’s insane.

To add on to dragon spirit, you also get a free heat action that knocks out about 4 enemies

After reading the title and before even watching the video I was like “this video is gonna be about Y5 Kiryu not needing heat to do bounding throws isn’t it”

Absolutely agree. Kiryu was an unstoppable monster in Y5 above all the other games. Making the simple change that his grab combos no longer drain Heat but instead gain Heat just sends him over the edge; no rules, no limits.

You call it Unbalanced,I call it Peak.